Today in History

Today is Sunday, March 3, the 62nd day of 2019. There are 303 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On March 3, 1974, a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris, killing all 346 people on board.

On this date:

In 1791, Congress passed a measure taxing distilled spirits; it was the first internal revenue act in U.S. history.

In 1845, Florida became the 27th state.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed a measure creating the National Academy of Sciences.

In 1931, “The Star-Spangled Banner” became the national anthem of the United States as President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional resolution.

In 1934, bank robber John Dillinger escaped from the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, Indiana, along with another prisoner, Herbert Youngblood.

In 1943, in London’s East End, 173 people died in a crush of bodies at the Bethnal Green tube station, which was being used as a wartime air raid shelter.

In 1959, the United States launched the Pioneer 4 spacecraft, which flew by the moon. Comedian Lou Costello died in East Los Angeles three days before his 53rd birthday.

In 1960, Lucille Ball filed for divorce from her husband, Desi Arnaz, a day after they had finished filming the last episode of “The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show” (“Lucy Meets the Mustache”) on Arnaz’s 43rd birthday.

In 1966, death claimed actor William Frawley at age 79 and actress Alice Pearce at age 48 in Hollywood.

In 1985, coal miners in Britain voted to end a year-long strike that proved to be the longest and most violent walkout in British history.

In 1991, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video. Twenty-five people were killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed while approaching the Colorado Springs airport.

In 2002, voters in Switzerland approved joining the United Nations, abandoning almost 200 years of formal neutrality.

Ten years ago: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during a visit to Israel, promised to work with the incoming government, but said movement toward establishment of a Palestinian state was “inescapable.” Sydney Chaplin, Charles Chaplin’s son and himself a Tony-winning actor, died in Rancho Mirage, Calif. at age 82.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a White House meeting to make the “tough decisions” needed to move forward on talks with the Palestinians. Oscar Pistorius pleaded not guilty to murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day 2013, marking the start of the Olympian’s murder trial in South Africa. (Pistorius is serving a 13-year sentence for murder after his original manslaughter conviction was overturned and his original six-year sentence was increased.)

One year ago: Actor David Ogden Stiers, best known for playing a surgeon on the “M.A.S.H.” television series, died at his Oregon home at the age of 75. Coastal communities in the northeastern United States saw damaging high tide flooding and the lingering effects of powerful, gusting winds in the aftermath of a vicious nor’easter. Roger Bannister, the British athlete who, while a medical student, became the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes, died in Oxford, England at the age of 88.